How far down the line?

[icelollycraving]

Sally met Jim for a drink a week ago. Jim has tested + for Covid.
Sally is Sarah's flat mate. Sally has a test booked tomorrow.
Sarah visited her parents, who then visited friends. No one beyond Jim has symptoms. Who needs to isolate beyond Jim?
I have a friend who is panicking, but tests are only with symptoms I thought.
Please can anyone advise as the advice online is quite confusing!

Sally shouldn’t have a test booked unless she’s showing symptoms. You don’t say when Jim first displayed symptoms, if it were within 48hrs of seeing Sally she may need to isolate if it was close contact. It’s not guidelines but if I were Sally I would be cautious for the next week or so. Jim’s household, and any close contacts from the 48hrs before he showed symptoms should be isolating.

Thank you for replying, what about Sarah? I assume she is ok to just give the heads up to those she saw? Do all of Sally's and Sarah's contacts need to isolate?

Unless anyone has symptoms no one needed to test other than Jim.

I thought the guidance was Jim would be contagious for 48 hours before symptoms so anyone who met jim a week ago would be fine.

When someone in my extended family was tested she was told only people who she had been in close contact with for more than 15 mins in that passed 48hrs had to isolate until results came back. Which was unfortunately me! But results were negative anyway.

The only person I know who had Covid was in hospital for the entirety.

No one needs to self-isolate except Jim. His close contacts only need to self-isolate if they were with him 48 hours or less before his symptoms started.

Sally shouldn't have got a test as she didn't have symptoms. People like Sally are one of the reasons the test sites are overrun.

All the details are on Gov.uk

www.gov.uk/guidance/nhs-test-and-trace-how-it-works

Thank you for all replies.

But surely Sally might be a close contact of Jim given that they went for a drink? We need to know when Jim's symptoms started in order to know whether Sally should be self-isolating as a close contact of Jim.

Jim got Positive result today from test on Wednesday. Sally no symptoms (yet?)

The NHS Test and Trace info says they are interested in close contacts in the 48 hours before the Covid-positive person developed symptoms. So if Sally and Jim went for their drink on the evening of Friday, 4 September, the question is did Jim start to experience symptoms by the evening of Sunday, 6 September? If the answer to that question is yes, I believe Sally should be isolating. If Jim only developed symptoms on Monday 7 September or later then I think the advice is no need for Sally to isolate. Personally, if I were Sally or Sarah, even if not officially required to isolate I would avoid contact with elderly or vulnerable people as far as possible for the coming week just to be on the safe side.